Highlights
- Calan performs in his recital and attends Mama’s studio recital
- Calan decides he loves to read music
- We create better habits for Evan keeping his toys organized
- Gran and Grandpa visit for the Holidays
Calan
As December got under way. Calan and Mama brought their respective colds into the Christmas season. They were the kind of colds that are essentially over, but lingering coughs for Mama and a “gagging” throat for Calan stayed with them for days. Calan actually volunteered to take naps a few different days in the pursuit of “getting better.” He also created a new routine this month with Dada, where in the mornings it was Dada’s job to give him his SLIT doses. Following SLIT, he and Dada would go pick oranges from the tree for Calan’s OJ. While Calan squeezed the oranges, Dada would prepare scrambled eggs and toast. This well-rounded meal with plenty of vitamin C would surely fix him up.
Despite working to beat the end of his cold, Calan was able to make it to his final few games of his third flag football season. He didn’t get in a lot of the plays, but there’s still something about showing up to play football that’s enough to motivate this kid. And, the most important thing is he had fun and wouldn’t miss it for anything.
This month Dada went to the far reaches of the shed and dug out from inside his old trunks some journals he’d kept as a kid. We started reading these with Calan before bed because he is always so interesting in hearing stories about Mama and Dada’s lives. It was interesting to share at Dada’s life at age 11, and seeing through Calan’s eyes at six. In some ways, 11 feels a lot older but in others Calan feels “mature” enough that he can relate. One thing for sure, we both liked to play around with the football and play basketball. Despite the similarities, Calan could not quite grasp Dada working 10-hour days doing prep work and washing dishes at Nanna and Poppa’s restaurant on Saturdays. (Dada can’t quite grasp this either but remembers all too well!)
Calan and Mama did a great job learning all of Calan’s violin holiday music this year. There were quite a bit more songs this year compared to last, and Calan was ready for his performance with all the other violinists. With an upgrade to his dress shirt, it was probably the last time he would fit into his suit and fancy shoes. With his funny gag issue left over from the cold, he was also armed with Skittles in his pocket for an emergency “lozenge” during the performance. It was probably more mental than anything, but he did well getting through. To celebrate, we hit up a ‘create your own pizza’ place before heading home. Calan definitely enjoyed that (thanks again to kicking that peanut allergy enough to this point!)
Calan also went through a phase this month where he became obsessed with learning to read musical notation. He loved working in his workbook, identifying the notes on the staff. He also started applying his new knowledge on the piano, learning to read the notes from his book, include both clefs. It seemed any chance he could get, he would run to the piano and start pecking away.
Speaking of peanuts, Dada got to join Mama and Calan this month on a Long Beach trip to see Dr. R. Calan got to try the most peanuts ever to date as usual on his visit (15 peanut M&Ms). He gobbled them down and passed his stress test (running down the hall for five minutes) with no problems. In fact, Calan was joking around saying that he wanted a tummy ache to come on, as if he was daring his body to react. All was good, and we even had some time to talk with Dr. R. as he wasn’t rushed with out appointment coming near the end of his day. Afterwards, we met up with Uncle Colin and Aunt Erin at the Soup Plantation, having a blast as usual with those two over mountains of food, silliness and good laughs. We stayed later than we anticipated, but endured the long ride home in the dark because we knew we would be greeted by Gran and Grandpa who had just driven in from up north. They were a day late from the original plan because their power had been out for days prior to their planned departure. Needless to say, it was a full day for everyone.
The Christmas break was as enjoyable as always with the boys. Overall, the group stayed in pretty steady spirits. This was in part to just laying low instead of doing too many outside activities, where the boys (and grownups) usually get worn out, and tempers can flare. Calan was able to see a movie (“Moana”) with Josiah and have a couple other friend meet-ups at the park, including his friend Augustine from school and his old pal Jake Scheeger. For Christmas, Calan’s favorite gifts were football themed: a real jersey with shoulder pads and a new “Junior” sized football from Uncle Colin.
Notable quotes this month:
Squeezing fresh OJ one morning:
Calan: “This is a big orange, Dada.”
Dada: “Yeah, it’s so big it’ll fill up the room when you squeeze it. Then you’ll have to swim in it.”
Calan: “No, I don’t have to swim in it, because I’ll just drink it!”
“No wonder this was a popular song. They’re doing math in that song.” Referring to the Proclaimer’s ’80s hit “500 miles (I’m gonna be)”
“It’s okay to make mistakes, because every time you make one you get smarter. So I should make more mistakes, huh?”
Fixing breakfast on morning:
Dada: “Calan, would you like cinnamon and honey on your toast this morning?”
Calan: “Nah, I wanna cut the sugar.”
Calan’s top ten things this month:
1. Music
2. Football and other sports
3. Lots of different foods
4 Trains and transportation
5 Fruit
6 Camping
7 Doing fun things
8 Cuddling with the whole family
9 Giving Evan a hug
10 My camera
Evan
Evan the mess maker finally pushed Dada to the brink this month. With Christmas on it’s way, and the old organization methods long gone (baskets around the house to keep toys contained), it was time to get control of the boys’ various toy collections. With this inspiration, we gathered up all the baskets that no longer kept toys in their places, and put them up in Evan’s closet. We labeled each one with things like cars, toys, animals, etc. and put everything from around the house in their assigned spot. With the baskets up high, we agreed that each day we could get out a few toys and return them at the end of the day. Of course, you could trade for another toy during the day. The boys loved it as it became a treat for them to “pick out” different toys from the baskets and play with them. Dada loved it because it meant no more endless quantities of play-things strewn about the house.
Evan tried some free-hand drawing this month as we remembered it was about this time that Calan started drawing a “boy” on the chalkboard. Evan’s boy was a bit different than anything resembling a boy, but he looked forward to giving it a try, saying “I want to draw a boy” as he steadied the chalk awkwardly in his little hand and scribbled in his Evan way.
Notable quotes this month:
Dada: “Evan how old are you?”
Evan: “I’m not old.”
Dada: “Evan could you please put all of the chalk away?”
Evan: “No. I just can’t.”
Dada: “Hi, baby”
Evan: “I’m not a baby. I’m Evan”